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Press Release

The principle mission of the new Center for Global Economic Growth (CGEG) is to assist free market limited government organizations throughout the world in developing citizen action groups to help promote public policies that will foster economic growth and opportunity.

Public policy problems are becoming global as the economies of the world are increasingly integrated. Issues, such as the environment, business and personal taxation, and financial regulation, no longer end at national borders. High-tax states pressure low-tax states to increase their taxes. Countries with strong environmental restrictions pressure those with lower standards to raise them regardless of the costs to their own populations. Many financial regulations, particularly those issued by international organizations, have the effect of placing destructive burdens on capital formation and capital importing nations and of reducing global growth.

“Countries which have a strong rule of law, protect private property, engage in relatively free trade, have free markets, use a sound currency, and maintain relatively low levels of government spending, taxing, and regulation, will grow much more rapidly than those countries that do not follow these constructive policies," said Richard Rahn, the Director General of CGEG.

The Mont Pelerin Society spawned free market think tanks beginning with the Institute for Economic Affairs in London. Over the last two decades, think tanks have been formed in many countries so that now there are several hundred around the globe. Many of these think tanks produce first-class research and do an excellent job in disseminating ideas.

As a result of their collective work and that of many academic scholars, there is now widespread agreement that countries which have a strong rule of law, protect private property, engage in relatively free trade, have free markets, use a sound currency, and maintain relatively low levels of government spending, taxing, and regulation, will grow much more rapidly than those countries that do not follow these constructive policies.

However, politicians in most countries continue to resist necessary changes because they often do not perceive it in their self-interest to do so. To overcome this problem, FreedomWorks and other organizations have established grassroots networks (i.e., citizen activists) in the United States to bring about constructive change. However, in much of the rest of the world, such grassroots networks are almost non-existent, even though many of these countries have very fine free market think tanks. Issues, like tax competition and environmental and financial regulation based on sound cost-benefit analysis are truly global in scope, and hence constructive policies and legislation need to be promulgated in many countries to maximize economic well-being for all the world’s peoples.

CGEG, working through FreedomWorks, will provide assistance and training to free market think tanks, taxpayer associations, and other limited government organizations outside of the U.S. to help enable them to create effective grassroots networks to bring about the necessary policy changes through the political processes in their own countries.